27 October, 2016Nissan International has announced restructuring that which will effectively relocate 92 jobs to the company’s European headquarters near Paris by April 2017
Nissan International will relocate 92 jobs out of the 228 at the Rolle site in Switzerland. According to IndustriALL affiliate UNIA, the company announced the news to the authorities and thus opened a consultation period that would go until 29 September 2016.
UNIA says that, even if a consultation period has been opened in respect of Swiss law, the rights of employees affected have still been violated.
The consultation period was clearly flawed, since crucial documents were only produced nine days before the end of the consultation period.
“UNIA still lacks sufficient information to know, for example, among the 92 employees, how many are under a contract governed by Swiss law,"said Komla Kpogli, union secretary at UNIA.
“Nissan does not recognize the collective mandate of the union. Even though the company prolonged the consultation period on numerous occasions this was just a strategy which aimed to buy time in order to weaken staff who would struggle to find time to work and seek union consultation,” said Helmut Lense, IndustriALL automotive director.
Nissan was urged to recognize UNIA as duly mandated by the workers. The company refused and UNIA therefore decided take collective action with staff on 18 October at Nissan International headquarters in Rolle.
“The recent events involving Nissan casts doubt on the company’s willingness to cooperate in good faith with unions. In Canton Mississippi Nissan management continues to pressure employees and discourage them to organize”, said Helmut Lense.
Just days ago French and US trade unions joined forces with IndustriALL and French parliamentarians on 12 October in Paris, to call on Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn to stop the anti-union practices at the Nissan plant, Canton, Mississippi.